Today I am reviewing:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
This is under the category: A Book About Native Americans
This is the story of a 14 year old boy named Arnold who lives on an Indian reservation in Spokane. He is a good student, so his school on the reservation is troubled, so his parents send him to the local school off the reservation. He doesn't fit in there either, because he is the only kid who isn't white at the school. Arnold had been born with a lot of fluid on his brain and was constantly bullied on the reservation. When he gets to his new school he does start to make new friends and even joins the basketball team. During the story, he has to deal with the death of his grandmother, his dog, and his sister. He has parents that spend more time drunk than not, and often forget to pick him up at the bus stop - which is 20 miles from his house. But his humor and resilience help him continue to believe someday he could leave the reservation and make something of himself. He feels caught between the world he grew up in and the white world he joined when he went to high school. He struggles to figure out who this makes him.
This was a pretty good book. I listened to it, and I really don't like when the authors read their own books. This is one of those books, and the author did an okay job, but it was a little choppy and no changes in voices for characters which made it a bit weird. But beyond that - it was a pretty good story. It is a short book, and written for the teenage crowd (but be wary - there is talk of sex and masturbation in the book, even though it is very little).
Check it out. The author took some details from his own up bringing as a Native American on a reservation to develop this story, and it gives a good look into the life of being a Native American who lives on a reservation but attends school and exists in a world outside of that as well.
Stars: 4
This book has been on my radar for awhile, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Maybe this will be the year!
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